Write Anyway

Hello and welcome to another Thursday Thirteen!

This week we have been talking about music and all the ways it is part of our lives. This week’s Thursday Thirteen prompts are going to continue on with prompts, questions, first lines, and other inspiration to help you get writing.

If there is another prompt you think would be helpful, be sure to let me know in the comments or by using the ‘contact me’ button under the site description.

1. Music of the Night
2. If life were a musical, your theme song would be…
3. What is your favourite type of music? Why?
4. What is the first song you ever remember hearing?
5. Has a song ever made you cry? Laugh? Feel strongly? What song was it, when did you hear it, and why did you feel that way?
6. Music doesn’t always come with lyrics and traditional instruments. What kind of non-traditional music do you like?
7. Have you ever written music? Song lyrics? Have you ever wanted to?
8. Do you have a favourite musical? If so, what is it? Why do you like it?
9. “Some songs just make me want to get up and dance…”
10.
11. Do you have any comfort songs? What are they?
12. If you could play any instrument instantly like a master, what instrument would you pick? Why?
13. “Music gives me something nothing else can…”

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens on The Book Stacks and Fiction Scribe

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another mid-week random word bank. I rather like random word banks. There is a challenge in them that not only gets your mind working, but you can also end up with a scene that you didn’t know you had it in you to write.

I hope you find these word banks useful. If there is a type of prompt you would prefer to see, please let me know.

Remember, with all the words, you can use any form, any tense of the word. Eg. Laugh can be laugh, laughter, laughs, laughed.

For the first word bank, I don’t want you to write a short story or anything actually. What I want you to do is word association. For every word there, I want you to write the word and then write the first word that comes to your mind after.

For the second word bank, I do want you to write a short story (or something longer if you like) that incorporates this week’s theme. This round goes as usual; just include all of the words in the bank.

For the third word bank, it is something different yet again. I would like you to try your hand at writing a poem incorporating the words provided. I don’t think I have asked you to write poetry before, so it should be something new and fun for you.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Night-time sharpens, heightens each sensation . . .
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination . . .
Silently the senses abandon their defences . . .
Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendour . . .

Ah, how I love the lyrics to Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera. From the first time I listened to the musical, I have been in love with it. Yum.

Music can indeed be a very emotional, magical thing. It can make us feel certain emotions, bring up memories even if we don’t want to, and even bring us to our feet with the strong urge to dance, dance, dance. Music can even tell a story with or without words.

Today I would like you to explore what music means to you. What you use it for. (A lot of writers use music to get them into certain moods or into the heads of certain characters.) How it makes you feel. Do you write music? Have you ever wanted to? Has music ever helped you through tough times? What are the special songs that signify the special times of your life?

Let your thoughts wander as you touch on this week’s theme. Have fun with it and maybe you’ll discover something new.

Don’t worry if you’re someone who doesn’t listen to a lot of music. You can write about the music you do listen to or why you don’t listen to music.

Who knows, this might be your inspiration point for starting to listen to music or listening to something new.

Well, well! Welcome to a new and wonderful week here on Write Anyway. We have just spent two weeks exploring the male and female influences in our lives, so I reckon it’s time we slow down, relax, and have a bit of fun.

(Not that the last two weeks weren’t fun, but it’s certainly an experience to try not to get into really bad jokes when dealing with the themes of ‘men’ and ‘women’.)

This week we are going to loosen up and talk about something that is very, very close to my heart: Music

Perhaps a simple concept upon first look, music can be delightfully complicated, scientifically broken down, or as simple as someone whistling while taking a stroll down the street.

Music is a wonderful thing that has been a part of my life for many years. I am more than happy to have it as a theme on this site.

Music of the Night – Phantom of the Opera (This is one of my favourites. I have been in love with Phantom of the Opera for many years now and this song spoke to me the most.)

Don’t Stop the Music – Rhianna (This is a new find for me, but I rather like it for an upbeat funky song. I hope you like it as well.)

You Are the Music in Me – High School Musical 2 (I completely forgot about this song until I was cruising around YouTube looking for videos. I haven’t actually seen the second movie, but I do remember looking up the videos when it seemed like all everyone could talk about was this movie. It’s not a bad song.)

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All our tour hosts receive a link on our sponsors’ page (if you prefer hosting your banner, that’s fine, too), links on our in house blogs, and will receive copies of books where applicable for their time and effort in hosting our authors. You will also receive substantial traffic on your blog while the author is touring as we highly publicize each and every one of our tour stops.

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Hello everyone and welcome to the Friday Feast. I missed out on it last Friday, but I am back once more and enjoying the feasts. Feel free to put your answers in the comments section. If you put the answers on your blog, link to them in the comments section so I can stop by and visit you.

On to the feast!

Appetizer - If you could be any current celebrity for one whole week, who would you want to be?

Honestly? None. I wouldn’t really be interested.

Soup - On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how much do you enjoy talking on the phone?

There isn’t a zero? I hate talking on the phone. Hate it. Abhor it. Wish I never had to do it.

Salad - Name a charitable organization to which you have donated (or would like to).

I have donated to Relay for Life. They are a charity who raises money for cancer research.

Main Course - What is a food you like so much you could eat it every single day for a month?

Pad thai. I love pad thai so much. Yum yum. I definitely think I could eat it every day for an entire month. Hopefully I would get other food for other meals, but I don’t think I would have a problem having that at least once each day.

Dessert - Have you or anyone in your family had the flu this year?

Nope. Take your zinc, your other vitamins, and eat a lot of blueberries.

Brought to you by Friday’s Feast

Hello and welcome to another Thursday Thirteen!

This week we have been talking about manly men and the influence of the masculine in our lives. This week’s Thursday Thirteen prompts are going to continue on with prompts, questions, first lines, and other inspiration to help you get writing.

If there is another prompt you think would be helpful, be sure to let me know in the comments or by using the ‘contact me’ button under the site description.

1. When I say ‘man’, what is the first word/image you think of?
2. What are some male stereotypes you think are true?
3. What are some male stereotypes you think are false?
4. (If you’re female) You have been granted one day as a man. What do you do?
5. “There’s something I have to tell you, Sir…”
6. When you think of masculine things occurring in nature, what do you think of?
7. Start off a scene with the funniest male joke you know.
8. Write a scene with a man, but don’t say what his sex is. Try making it obvious through other means.
9. Who is your favourite male celebrity? Male musical group? (etc) Why?
10. Who is your favourite guy?
11. What are some of the best and worst characteristics of men you know?
12. What makes a good/bad father?
13. What is the best feature of a man’s body?

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens on The Book Stacks and Fiction Scribe

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another mid-week random word bank. I rather like random word banks. There is a challenge in them that not only gets your mind working, but you can also end up with a scene that you didn’t know you had it in you to write.

I hope you find these word banks useful. If there is a type of prompt you would prefer to see, please let me know.

Remember, with all the words, you can use any form, any tense of the word. Eg. Laugh can be laugh, laughter, laughs, laughed.

For the first word bank, I don’t want you to write a short story or anything actually. What I want you to do is word association. For every word there, I want you to write the word and then write the first word that comes to your mind after.

For the second word bank, I do want you to write a short story (or something longer if you like) that incorporates this week’s theme. This round goes as usual; just include all of the words in the bank.

For the third word bank, it is something different yet again. I would like you to try your hand at writing a poem incorporating the words provided. I don’t think I have asked you to write poetry before, so it should be something new and fun for you.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Ah, men.

Love them, hate them, want them, reject them, hold them close, push them away… Maybe you are one.

By no means can you categorize all men into one category. They come in as many shapes, sizes (get your mind out of the gutter), and varieties as women do. As much as we would like to classify everyone as one way or another, that just doesn’t work.

Today’s writing exercise will help you explore not only how you feel about men and what your vision of the ideal man is, but you will probably end up with a rather thorough character sketch that you’ll be able to use later.

You can either write out full sentences or a bulleted list of questions and answers. It’s entirely up to you and how you work best. I do encourage you to write with as few pauses as possible so you can really let your subconscious out to play.

Today I want you to think about the ideal man. What does he look like? What does he do for a living? Does he have stereotypical man roles at home? Or is he a stay at home father who can iron shirts like nobody’s business? Does he dress in suits or is he a shorts and t-shirt kind of guy? What is important to him? What does he find annoying? What are his bad points? What are his goals in life?

You might just be surprised at how many different kinds of ‘ideal’ men people have in mind…

Yes, that’s right. It’s a Manly Musical Monday here on Write Anyway.

Last week the theme was women and all that is feminine. I had a lot of fun talking about the feminine influence in the world and all that it means.

However, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t put the spotlight on the masculine part of the universe, now would it? So this week we’re going to do what we did last week…with men and the masculine instead of women.

Why do I get this feeling that it’s going to be an interesting week?

As you likely know, I am a woman, so I might not go about doing this week the completely correct way, but I will refrain from making guy jokes. I quite enjoy having my husband around, so I’ll try to keep focusing on that feeling instead of anything else.

For this week’s theme I only have one video for you. But I think it so entirely encompasses what it is to be a right bloke – as the Aussies say – that I think it makes up for being the only video.

To the tune of ‘I’m a Bitch’ comes ‘I’m a Bloke’ by Chris Franklin. If this video doesn’t make you smile and/or laugh, I simply don’t know what will. The first time I heard this song – in a pub of all places, ironically – I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing and laughed so hard when I finally found the video.

Enjoy the video and have a lovely manly week.